Notebooks and class boards

With schools all set to open in Oman, the teachers are gearing up to receive students.

The main duty of a teacher is to impart knowledge and light the career path of students.

While accountants deal with numbers that have fixed characteristics, engineers deal with machinery or materials, teachers deal with young minds.

The students’ life experience is just beginning and interestingly teachers become part of their important life lessons. Teachers are going to leave strong impressions as they are part of their childhood memories.

Some teachers like us and some get irritated at the very sight of us. That is what we think.

Teachers have to deal with young minds that are curious, sensitive, emotional, vulnerable, at times adamant, over confident, unsecured, shy and nervous. Even the human resources department can prepare teachers for this because the young minds are unpredictable. So it is a relief for them when they come across a student who willingly cooperate and show interest in the class.

We see teachers in the classroom but we often do not think of them in their homes. They multitask and prepare for the lessons. They also would have their emotional baggage and challenges beyond the classroom, but we only associate teachers to our life as a student.

So a teacher's job is beyond taking lessons although it is well known that teachers spend time at home working on projects and lessons for next day. They remember students by their names as well as their interests and characteristics. On top of all that they become important advisors in our life.

Even after years of career when we sit down quietly, faces of teachers appear in our mind - their voices and words. We continue to reflect on the classes and subjects that went over our heads and the ones that left us spell bound.

As a student chemistry formula and the periodic table was a Herculean task but seeing the copper sulphate blue in the lab made all sense. That’s the thing - students are made up differently and they bloom in different ways. Just like butterflies cannot be forced to come out of the pupae, students have to find their own pace and struggles.

But for sure the teachers we remember, no matter what subjects they were teaching, are the ones who talked to us recognising the person in us - no matter whether we were a top scorer or not.

Each child in the classroom is beginning to write the chapters of their lives, and the parents, teachers and mentors can provide the guidance, inspiration and motivation. Words of wisdom might not be digested well until life teaches you. Experience is one of the best teachers and time determines how quickly we learn our lessons. Sometimes lessons learnt are too late, but then again it is never too late.

For that matter, we never stop being students because learning is a continuous process and we have to be diligent just like students preparing for their research. And teachers efforts continue each academic year - same subjects, but new faces, with fresh pages and clean boards.

A class room needs both - notebooks and boards just like the need for teachers and students. Together they form a room of knowledge - the classroom filled with silence during exams, giggles and chatter during breaks, greetings and teachings as well as questions and answers.

Out of all those young minds we cannot judge who would become what, because that only the time can tell. Patience is what is needed in addition to discipline and hard work.

Wishing the best to teachers and students for the new academic year. It is the togetherness that matters the most.